26 replies to this topic

[lanciaman]

Mario hit Brack debris coming out of turn one, got launched 30 feet in the air, went end over end twice and came down more or less upright. He is ok. A truly spectacular incident by all accounts.

http://www.indystar....1-4177-092.html

[weasle]

anybody know where i can find a vid clip of this?

[jde]

http://www.wthr.com/...26&nav=9TahFPiv

Absolutely amazing...

-jde

[eldougo]

Oooooo Deeeeeerrrr ------------ wake up MARIO

[Leif Snellman]

That was a BIG one!!!

[diego]

Oh my goodness.. he almost bought the farm on that one.

Mario is one of my heroes.... I hope that he can just be thankful for the blessings in his life and walk away from driving one last time before he gets hurt for real.

[RacingCrusaderUK]

A big one for Mario there, sure he's had worse though. I know some people feel strongly about Mario running in the 500 this year, too old etc. I for one however would love to see him start the event. He is in my opinion still one of the finest drivers alive, still fast, still sharp and still physically fit, remarkable for 63.

[D. Heimgartner]

Worse????@@@##%%!!!!!!!!!!

Are y9ou kidding me? I know racinnnng as dangerous way back when, but there had to be a big fat brown smear in MA pants after that incident. I have seen very few more sickening crashes...................... had the angle of incidence been any higher, he would have been smeared all across the fence.

Lady luck smiled on Andretti today,

[DOHC]

Sheer luck to walk away...

[Bruce Moxon]

Holeee Sheeeeeeeit.

I reckon they used the Jaws of Life to get the seat out of his butt.

Good luck to the man, he's truly one of the greats. Like old cars, old racers should be allowed out to play. I'd love to see him win another 500.

Bruce Moxon

[rdrcr]

Mario still has the shine... The pressure of performing with only limited seat time in a competitive atmosphere in quite sometime must be great. But not only is he still quick, lapping at 212 mph in a new car, but he still has the luck to walk away unscathed from what could have easily been, a fatal accident.

That was one wild ride...

Go Mario!

[jde]

Richard:

The 212 was during the morning shakedown. I read somewhere that he'd run a 225.4 shortly before the crash.

-jde

[dretceterini]

I think Mario should have hung it up a long time ago...

[Rainer Nyberg]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by dretceterini
I think Mario should have hung it up a long time ago...
[/ QUOTE]

I think the lack of entries for this years event has lured Mario out of retirement. There is a possibility that the 33-car grid won't even be filled. So anyone posting a time could get into the field. If he ran 225 then he would have decent speed, but he was embarrassingly slow during his last couple of Le Mans efforts. But Indy is a different thing...

[Jack-the-Lad]

I saw Mario drive brilliantly at the Quester Grand Prix (anybody remember that one?) at Ontario in 1970 (or was it '71) and then again at the 1978 Belgian GP at dreadful Zolder. In retrospect, the shocking thing is that those two races and the cars in them existed in the same decade, given the vast differences between them. Of all the drivers involved, I believe Andretti may have been the only one to compete in both races.

Jack

[Leif Snellman]

Originally posted by Jack-the-Lad
I saw Mario drive brilliantly at the Quester Grand Prix ... .

Questor GP 1971.

I believe Andretti may have been the only one to compete in both races.

Andretti, Peterson, Fittipaldi, Ickx.

[Mohican]

What about Mario qualifying the Lotus 49 on pole at the '68 US GP at Watkins Glen - and doing the same at Monza in 1982 driving a Ferrari 126C2 ? Quite some changes during that time.

Not to mention winning at Indy in 1969, and running there today.

Quite apart from anything else, why does Michael Andretti - on the verge of retirement himself - even allow his 63-year old father to submit himself to this kind of risk ? These guys have a strange, or at least special, relationship.

[Maldwyn]

Mario Andretti has decided that returning to Indianapolis at the age of 63 is not such a good idea after all. The former World Champion made the decision after a spectacular 200mph somersault. Andretti will remain the oldest man ever to test an Indycar and his speed of 225.45mph is pretty impressive.

"What happened was maybe a signal that I should pay attention to," he told the Indianapolis TV station WTHR-TV. "I had an incredibly satisfying day and I'm very grateful to Michael and the Green team for giving me that opportunity."

www.grandprix.com

[lustigson]

I can't see it. Does anybody have the clip anywhere that I can just download it first?

[masterhit]

I adore Mario, but I am glad that he has called it quits. He is a legend, and I am constantly amazed at what he can still achieve but relieved that, at 63, he has finally taken a backseat. It's a bit like how Evel Knievel's family must feel.

[Flying Panda]

Originally posted by lustigson
I can't see it. Does anybody have the clip anywhere that I can just download it first?

Yes.
If your pon dial up, i hope you have an hour to spare

http://tbk.fameflame...opic.php?t=3665

[Lutz G]

Originally posted by D. Heimgartner
Worse????@@@##%%!!!!!!!!!!

Are y9ou kidding me? I know racinnnng as dangerous way back when, but there had to be a big fat brown smear in MA pants after that incident. I have seen very few more sickening crashes...................... had the angle of incidence been any higher, he would have been smeared all across the fence.

Lady luck smiled on Andretti today,

If my memory serves me well Mario had a big one at the '69 Indy 500 during practice too. Guess who won on sunday...

Lutz

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Flying Panda
Yes.
If you're on dial up, i hope you have an hour to spare

http://tbk.fameflame...opic.php?t=3665

That's just incredible, especially the real speed version!

I'm afraid, however, I've gone well past a time I'd say, "Isn't it a miracle he survived?" Luck seems to play such a part in this aspect of things... pure chance.

[WGD706]

The possibility has now been mentioned that it wasn't debris from Brack's car that Andretti ran over, but a styrofoam piece out of the SAFER wall that Brack had hit. When Brack hit the SAFER wall, the impact spit out a large piece of white Styrofoam that's used between the metal beam facing of the SAFER Wall and the concrete wall behind it. It was the Styrofoam that Andretti hit, lifting the nose of his car just enough to get air under it lifting it up.
The video of the crash shows a white object laying on the track, and the size looks about the same as the Styrofoam pieces behind the wall. It was that object that Andretti hit, and there's nothing else that large and that white on Brack's car.

[lanciaman]

The official conclusion late yesterday is that Andretti hit Brack's wing, separated by the latter's bashing the wall. Also, that Andretti hit the top of the catch fencing twice!! A remarkable outcome and while I hoped to see more of Mario at the Speedway, this was clearly a call for no more.

[WGD706]

Thanks for the update; I was wondering what was white and that size that Andretti ran over; I figured Brack's wing was painted a different color.

Contact with rear wing from Brack's crash sent Andretti flying
By Curt Cavin
curt.cavin@indystar.com
April 30, 2003

Mario Andretti's race car was launched into the air last week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by a piece of Kenny Brack's broken rear wing, officials from the Indy Racing League and Andretti Green Racing have concluded.
The situation was likely unavoidable given the angle at which Brack crashed, officials said. Brack's impact was with the car's left rear suspension, which scattered debris in Andretti's path.
Andretti's contact with Brack's wing pillar and mounting block lifted the nose of the car off the ground, the IRL's Brian Barnhart said. Fast-moving air rocketed the 63-year-old racing legend up, where he struck the fence twice before flipping repeatedly and landing on the track.
Miraculously, Andretti was not injured. Brack escaped injury, too.
AGR co-owner Kim Green said damage to the car proved Andretti struck something solid, almost certainly the damaged wing pieces. Barnhart said what Andretti hit also gouged the racetrack. "You can see right where the liftoff was," Barnhart said.
The findings of the April 23 incident, which are based on a site inspection and review of video shot by WTHR-13, will be discussed at the IRL's biweekly safety meeting Thursday.
Barnhart said all the safety measures put in place by the Speedway, the IRL and the race teams held up. All of the debris, including an errant tire of Andretti's, stayed within the track.
"You'd be hard-pressed to say that any of these areas -- the racetrack, the SAFER barrier, the catch fence or the new cars -- could have done a better job," he said.

http://www.indystar....9-4528-037.html

[A.Will]

Good job that it was testing and there weren't any spectators, I saw a wheel bounce into the stands at an almighty rate